After a decade of preparation and three years of filming, Wong Kar-wai’s “The Grandmaster” opened in China on Tuesday, and any lingering questions over whether the movie would live up to its lofty expectations immediately evaporated.

Mr. Wong has made a martial-arts film for people who typically wouldn’t go to see an action movie, and an art-house film for audiences who resist ambiguity in their cinematic experiences.

Many of the kung-fu scenes are set in beautifully furnished parlor rooms that suggest the quiet intensity of a high-stakes chess game, but one in which the threats could mean life or death. It’s in these moments it becomes clear that Mr. Wong is showing his audience that kung fu is as much an intellectual pursuit as it is a sport of strength and physical superiority.

Fans of Mr. Wong, one of Asia’s most prominent filmmakers and a regular fixture on the international film-festival circuit, have been eagerly anticipating “The Grandmaster.” More than five years have passed since the Hong Kong director released his last full-length feature film, “My Blueberry Nights” starring Norah Jones, and it’s been nearly nine years since his last Chinese-language film, “2046.”

The movie follows the life of Ip Man, the real-life instructor of the Wing Chun style of kung fu, who was born in Foshan in 1893 and died in Hong Kong in 1972. (A young Bruce Lee was among his students, although his character doesn’t appear in the new film.)

Tony Leung Chiu-wai plays Ip Man; Zhang Ziyi stars as Gong Er, the daughter of a powerful martial-arts master from northern China and a kung-fu expert herself; and Chang Chen appears as a mysterious character named Razor. All three actors joined Mr. Wong at a press conference in a crowded Hong Kong shopping mall on Tuesday night for the local premiere.

Dean Napolitano/The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Leung said the action part of the movie was ‘really tough.’ More photos

Mr. Leung, who is known primarily for his dramatic roles rather than action, told the Journal that preparing for the role was a challenge.

“The action part was really tough for me,” Mr. Leung said. “We started practicing a year-and-a-half before the movie began shooting. … But we trained during the shooting, so we trained like four years.”

“The character is very much different from what audiences have seen before,” he continued. “With the role this time, we are trying to mix up Bruce Lee and the real man — Ip Man — together.”

“The Grandmaster” takes place mainly from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s — a turbulent time in China’s history, but one that the film doesn’t dwell on — and focuses on Ip Man’s tentative friendship with Gong Er and his rivalry with other kung-fu masters and their followers. The story also explores the deep patience, obedience and discipline that kung fu demands on its teachers and students.

The Ip Man character has become an extremely popular — and profitable — movie character in recent years, most notably with 2008’s “Ip Man” and its 2010 sequel starring Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen.

“The Grandmaster” opens in Hong Kong on Thursday and in Taiwan next week, ahead of its European premiere on Feb. 7 as the opening film at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Mr. Wong is this year’s jury president. The movie will screen out of competition.

Though the film runs two hours and 10 minutes, Mr. Wong said earlier this week that it could have lasted four hours due to all the footage he shot, which suggests that audiences someday could see a longer “director’s cut.”

The Chinese movie industry will now turn its attention to box-office receipts for “The Grandmaster,” which took in 29.8 million yuan ($4.8 million) on its opening day Tuesday, according to media-research firm EntGroup. By comparison, “Lost in Thailand” pulled in 39.4 million on its first day on Dec. 12.